it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. (Gen 2:3).
But God’s people were brought into a state of slavery and bondage in Egypt.
We read that the Egyptians had made their lives bitter with hard bondage. They toiled for their Egyptian taskmasters all day every day and received none of the taken away from them. I note also that before they were delivered, the fruit of the creation ordinance of marriage - their children - was also being taken away from them. They had no rest, and they had no relief, and this situation contin- ued until they cried out to the Lord and He had delivered them out of Egypt by His Mighty right hand. them, even before the giving of the Ten Commandments at Sinai, was to re- store the Sabbath that their bondage in Egypt had obliterated. Unfortunately, had left Egypt with:
Exodus 16:23-30, “Then he said to them, “This is what the LORD has said:
‘Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and lay up for yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning.’ So they laid it up till morning, as Moses commanded; and it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it. Then Moses said, “Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to the LORD; today you will not the Sabbath, there will be none. Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none. And the LORD said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? “See! For the LORD has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.” So the people rested on the seventh day. Notice also that here the Lord uses the Sabbath to teach his people to depend upon His provision rather than on what they can do, which is a lesson the Lord seeks to teach His people throughout scripture and a lesson we desperately need to learn regarding redemption. Here, God reminds them, and yes, I’m paraphrasing, “You were slaves in Egypt, you had no rest but I brought you out, I released you from your bondage, I delivered you. Therefore, do not go back to it, neither bring your children or your servants into the same kind of bondage that you were in.” After they entered the Promised Land, one of the signs that the people were falling away from the Lord and becoming like the godless Canaanite nations was their breaking the Sabbath commandment. them, a blessing, a holy day, and they entered into materialistic idolatry where they depended upon their own labor and worshipped mammon. They also took away the memorial to the Lord’s work. As the Sabbath disap-
peared from their society, so did the remembrance of the Lord and his redemp- tion. The Sabbath and religion were tied together and as one disappeared the other did as well. Because of that the World, the Flesh, and the Devil had a vest- ed interest in erasing the Sabbath. As they did, they erased the remembrance of the Lord from amongst his people, they committed them to materialistic idola- try, and they laid a heavy yoke on their shoulders. Erase observation of the fourth commandment and you return God’s people to bondage and idolatry. That is not only true for them, as Christians we too have been given one day in seven as a day of rest and worship, the day called by John in Rev. 1:10, “The
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This is the day when the Apostolic church gathered to worship: Acts 20:7, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.”
Day of Rest
The reason why Christians cel- ebrate Sunday and not Saturday as their one day of rest in seven is be- cause Sunday is the day of the Resur- rection, the day when Jesus complet- ed his work of rescuing his people from the slavery and oppression of sin. Sunday, the Christian Sabbath, is still our day of liberation and free- dom from slavery. It is given to us for rest and for works of piety, necessity, and mercy. We know that we should always be doing good on the Sabbath and that there are certain necessary jobs such as soldier, doctor, nurse, Sunday. It reminds us that there is still a Sabbath rest coming when all of creation will be freed from bondage: Hebrews 4:9-10, “So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.” For centuries Christians remem-
- peror was to enact a law in 321 AD that followed the Scripture pattern and the practice of the church and made Sunday the empire’s day of rest and worship, and for centuries we followed that habit. Most of you who are over 40 will remember that when you were growing up all the stores and banks and non-essential services were closed on Sunday. But brothers and sisters, we are seeing in our own day that both Creation ordinances, Marriage, and the Sabbath, are being gradually deleted from our society. Marriage rates are plummeting and 40% of American and 50% of Cana-
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